Christopher Paul Gardner

My hero is Christopher Paul Gardner. I admire him because he is a self-made millionaire and a well known philanthropist who struggled with homelessness and poverty when he was young. Gardner was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (the USA) in 1954. He was the 7th child in the family. They were very poor. His father left the family when Christopher was a little boy. His stepfather was cruel and often beat the wife and the children. But Christopher`s mother was his source of inspiration and strength. She used to say: "You can only depend on yourself. The cavalry won`t come."

Christopher Gardner did not get a good education. After school he enlisted in the navy as a hospital attendant. In 1981 his son, Christopher Medina-Gardner, was born. Gardner worked as a lab assistant. His job was paid about 8000$ a year. It was not enough for his young wife and his son. So he decided to take a job as a medical equipment salesman. But it also did not bring much money. Soon his wife left him and his child. During this period Christopher had so little money that he could not rent a flat. So he and his son became homeless. They slept wherever they could find safety: in flophouses, in parks and even in locked bathrooms in Metro.

One day a pivotal moment occurred in his life. In the street he came across a well-dressed man in a red Ferrari. Gardner asked the man about his job. The man told him he was a stock-broker. From that moment Christopher Gardner decided to become a stock-broker too. He got a position in Dean Witter Reynold`s stock brokerage training programme. Every day Gardner worked hard to become a full employee of the firm. So Gardner passed his exam on the first try. It was his triumph over poverty and homelessness. Nowadays Christopher Paul Gardner is a well-known millionaire. He has his own stock-brokerage firm, called "Gardner Rich&Co".